Skill Order

Introduction

Who am I?
I'm PabloTheTwig, a Diamond V randomlock-loving summoner. I mostly play normals with friends, but will play ranked when one or zero are online. Tend to veer towards top and mid champions if I had to choose a role. I've also played at least 400 games as Top Solo Lulu.

Since the start of the new Ranked System for Season 3, Lulu has dominated my match history for ranked. Finally decided that I really don't care if my team hates me the first 5 minutes of the game. She's just too good to keep hiding behind normals with :P

What is a Lulu?

Lulu is an adorable yordle champion, and is generally considered to be a support. While she is damn good in this role, she surprisingly works equally as well as the Top Solo champion for the team.

How can this be? Isn't she really squishy? Can she even deal damage? Won't most people be able to easily bully her out of lane?

WRONG ON ALL 3 COUNTS SIR SLASH MADAM!

Lulu's passive adds a bonus attack to all basic attacks she makes. At level 18, this bonus is an extra 105 magic damage per autoattack. Couple this with Wit's End and Nashor's and you have a surprising amount of damage on each attack. With high attack speed and a great attack animation, she'll be hitting hard and fast.

Lulu is deceptively tanky. She has about at 350 HP shield at level 13, with a pretty low cooldown. Her ult buffs her HP by about 700 health at 16 and slows everyone around her, making it a pain in the ass to hit her if you're melee. She also has a speed buff, meaning she can chase and escape from many situations. Since you can easily get 200 AP after your core items, that amounts to an extra 1050 effective HP at level 16.

Think she'll get outlaned at top by tanky / sustain-filled champions / bursty champions? THINK AGAIN! Lulu is very hard to harass with her shield, and she can easily escape from jungle ganks. Because she is ranged, she has an easy time farming against melee champions, and can easily punish them for getting CS with a quick E+Q nuke + autoattacks.

This is NOT a guide for Support or Mid Lulu. This is a guide for AP-Attack Speed Top Lulu. Your teammates will probably hate you for doing this. And they'll be your adoring fans by the time you've carried the team to the victory screen.

Lulu pros:

Ranged! Awesome passive!

Amazing attack animation.

Tons of support for teammates.

Long-range slow (925) that can be extended even further with smart use of her E.

2.5 second "stun".

Good base damages, low mana costs.

Easily can escape jungle ganks due to her shield, ult and speed buff.

NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO FIGHT HER!

Lulu cons:

If she falls behind, it's really hard to catch up.

Can't initiate teamfights as well as other tops, but can help someone else on team initiate better.

Why Top Lulu is Viable

Many question if Lulu is a good choice for your top lane and if she's even viable. In short, yes, she is completely viable and can be an excellent choice depending on your team composition.

Lulu excels in peeling, initiating and protecting important members of your team. Her kit provides excellent peeling and amazing shields.

In the early game, Lulu can destroy other top lane champions. Her low cooldown E and Q can heavily chunk the enemy early on as it does a very nice amount of damage and on top of that, she can deny a lot of trading with her whimsy or she can use her E on herself for a shield. Pix passive makes last hitting easier, and greatly buffs your autoattacks when harassing.

In the mid and late game, she becomes a medium damage, high support champion. Her Q peels multiple enemies for 80% movespeed and her whimsy can disable the enemy carry for most of the team fights if she has enough CDR. Her ultimate can either initiate, enhance an initiation or save a team member. Her burst shields are extremely powerful and are not affected by ignite.

Overall, you'll want to pick Lulu if you're looking for a champion with a dominating early-mid game (after Wit's End), high team presence and turns into a powerful support with medium damage. Lulu works exceptionally well with a strong initiation team comp or a support/tank heavy hyper carry team comp.

For example, for an initiation team, your team could include Malphite, Shyvana, Maokai or etc. When they use their initiation skills, you ultimate them and it will provide an even stronger initiation.

For a support/tanky team, you could have like an AP Janna or Soraka and have just a high utility team that supports their hyper carry to win the game. (Hyper carries can include Kog'maw or Vayne.)

Number Crunching - Lulu vs Teemo vs Kayle

NOT YET UPDATED FOR SEASON 4

Teemo and Kayle are the two champions who most frequently utilize on-hit builds in their playstyles.

Here are some numbers comparing the damage output of these two champions, compared to Lulu

What does all this mean? It shows that Lulu really can keep up in damage compared to Teemo and Kayle. Her numbers at level 9 are almost 10% higher than Kayle's, and is almost within 99% of Teemo's damage.

WHOA! Lulu beat them both. Don't believe me? Try it yourself; you'll get the same results.

Masteries

Offense
- 4 points in Fury
More autoattacks = more damage.
Sidenote: The 4% CDR can also be nice. Up to you I guess. I personally prefer the Attack Speed.

- 1 point in Expost Weakness
Damage from your Glitterlance has the potential to hit a lot of enemies. With Nashor's Tooth, you can have this benefit for your allies over 50% of the time during a teamfight.
- 3 points in Brute Force
- 3 points in Mental Force
These both are for the... AD and AP.

- 1 point in Spell Weaving
You do a lot of autoattacking, and dish out a lot of Spell Damage. What isn't to like?
- 1 point in Martial Mastery
- 1 point in Arcane Mastery
These both are for the... AD and AP.
- 1 point in Executioner
Excellent for finishing off opponents once you've brought them down. Overall, an average 2.5% increase in damage.

- 3 points in Archmage
Superior to it's AD counterpart; You don't build much AD, and thus the extra bonus is wasted. Lots of AP is built, so the extra bonus adds a lot more.

- 1 point in Devastating Strikes
Wonderful mastery, gives you penetration on all of your damage.
- 1 point in Arcane Blade
You're an autoattacking champion that gets AP. Why not get even MORE damage on top of that?

- 1 point in Havoc
Straight up damage increase. Just what the doctor ordered.

Utility

- 1 point in Fleet of Foot
Lulu has the lowest base movement speed in the game. This helps reduce that a little bit.
- 3 points in Meditation
More early mana regen means a lot more harass Lulu can dish out early game.

- 1 point in Alchemist
10% more duration on Crystalline Flask. Sweeeeet.

Runes

Red
Preferred: MPen
Others: HybridPen, Flat AD

Seeing as the majority (~65%) of your damage comes from magical sources, magic penetration is a great way to go.

Flat AD is nice for a slightly more physical route. Also helps a lot with early last hitting.

HybridPen can also be nice, but is more suited towards a build with more AD than mine.

Reign of Gaming had a nice article about the comparisons between Hybrid and MPen reds:
http://www.reignofgaming.net/blogs/a-different-view/diff-the-ender/23126-hybrid-penetration-marks-analysis-by-difftheender

The choice is yours.

Yellow
Preferred: Armor
Others: Mana Regen

99% of the time, get armor. You'll need it for defense against your top opponent and/or their jungler.

In the rare, rare, RARE case of AP top and AP jungle.... I guess run mana regen. Except I would still probably run Armor for duels later against opposing AD carry. Just get armor

Blue
Preferred: Magic Resist
Others: Flat AP, CDR

95% of the time, get the MR. Squishy Lulu needs all the defense she can get early game.

Flat AP and CDR could also work on her.... but the slight offense you get from that is not superior to the extra defense you sorely need in the early levels.

Quints
Preferred: AP
Optional: Attack Speed, Movement Speed, AD

The extra 15 AP early game gives some nice damage, that scales with your build better than the AD runes. Attack Speed is nice, but doesn't help early game as much, when your primary goal is to snowball like crazy. Movement Speed is also quite nice, but also doesn't help you snowball as easily as the AD or AP runes.

Summoner Spells

and

Easily the best summoner in the game. The spell teleports you to any location within range of its AOE, and allows you to escape ganks, catch fleeing enemies, or dodge incoming skillshots. With this summoner, you can jump over walls, which can include objects that champions like Jarvan, Trundle, and Anivia can create.

Ignite not mandatory, but quite useful for securing early kills. With this summoner, you can dish out a little extra damage in a fight, which could be the difference between life and death. It is also very useful for finishing off enemies underneath towers so you can escape more easily. Note that this spell also reduces your opponents healing from all sources, so it is very very useful against enemies such as Swain and Aatrox that have high amounts of sustain during your duels.

A worthy alternative to Flash. This summoner lets you very easily chase after your opponents, due to the massive speed boost it gives over a decent amount of time. However, I tend to run flash more for the early game escape against Junglers. The fact that Flash lets you simultaneously dodge skillshots and has the option of wall-jumping makes it superior to Ghost in my eyes on Lulu.

This summoner allows your team to have a lot more map control; you can potentially teleport across the map to help kill Dragon, or counter-gank your opponent's jungle at bottom lane. However, the loss of Ignite does make it less likely for Lulu to pick up kills in the Top Lane. Wouldn't recommend this spell unless you're in a premade game of 5 people and they can be prepared for sudden Lulu help. Note that your opponents CAN see you teleporting to an object inside the brush, so your opponents will tend to know you're coming before you've actually arrived.

This summoner slows your enemy for a few seconds, and also reduces their attack speed and damage output. While the spell is certainly useful, Lulu finds much more offensive use out of Ignite. Lulu already has enough slowing and kiting power at her disposal, and thus doesn't tend to utilize the damage reduction component of Exhaust too well. Pick this up only if you expect to be having a very difficult lane (Jarvan comes to mind).

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Heal is an instant health restore to yourself and the allies around you. Barrier provides a 2 second shield that is not mitigated by anti-healing effects such as Ignite. Both of these summoners in conjunction with Lulu's ultimate make her deceptively tanky - she can suddenly jump from 100 HP to over 1000, a very dangerous thing for your enemies if they've decided to tower dive. This makes these spells very nice if you're going for maximum annoyance to your opponents. However, Lulu tends to not have too many defensive problems due to her already powerful ult and shield, and thus should still be using offensive summoners.

Skills

Passive: Pix, Faerie CompanionPix fires magical bolts of energy whenever his owner attacks another enemy unit. These bolts are homing, but can be intercepted by other units.

Explanation:

Shoots out 3 bolts each time Lulu autoattacks. Starts out at 9 total damage at level 1, goes up 12 damage every 2 levels. Finishes up with 105 additional total magic damage per hit at level 17/18 (35 damage per bolt). This passive is the main reason Attack Speed Lulu works so well.

Notes:
- These bolts are STOPPED BY ANY ENEMY IN ITS PATH. For maximum DPS, fight opponents with no obstructions between Pix and your opponents.
- Pix by default flies around Lulu. If Help, Pix! is cast on a target, Pix will instead fly around that unit for a few seconds, and will attack your autoattack target from that location.
- Each bolt does NOT apply on-hit effects. You only get the effects with your normal autos.
- Pix will not damage things that aren't alive (buildings, wards)
- If Lulu is blinded, Pix will also miss. Jax also dodges the attacks.
- Pantheon and Fiora autoattack shields will prevent one bolt of Pix's attack.
- Shielding an ally gives them the benefit of this passive instead of you.

Q: Glitterlance Pix and Lulu each fire a bolt of magical energy that heavily slows all enemies it hits. An enemy can only be damaged by one bolt.

Explanation:

Great nuke, perfect for maxing first. Bread and butter skill, use in conjunction with Help, Pix! to harass, slow, and escape ganks. This ability is best used to harass your opponents in lane from far away, followed up by an autoattack or two while they're slowed. During teamfights, try to aim the ability so that it will hit the maximum number of opponents. While running away, cast this behind you to greatly hinder your opponents ability to catch up to you.

Notes:
- A bolt fires from Lulu as well as Pix. Use in conjunction with E to get absurd slow range.
- Hitting a champion with both bolts does not damage both times. The slow duration does get refreshed though.
- If a target has a spellshield up, the first bolt will be blocked. If they are hit by a 2nd bolt, it will do full damage.
- With some CDR (hello Nashor's Tooth!), you can Help Pix! an enemy, quickly Glitterlance them, and get the cooldown for Glitterlance back before Pix leaves your opponent, allowing an easy 2nd cast.
- Pro strat: Use your Help, Pix! to move Pix to an enemy/ally, then Glitterlance with Pix's range
- Pro strat: Hitting an enemy with this ability makes an impact noise; use this to your advantage when checking bushes.

W: Whimsy If cast on an ally, grants them movement speed and ability power for a short time. If cast on an enemy, turns them into an adorable critter that can't attack or cast spells.

Explanation:

Used primarily as a speedbuff for the majority of the game (5 seconds of speed vs 1.5 seconds of stun @ rank 1), but don't forget you can use it to stop channeling spells and such. During duels, it tends to be best to use this ability on yourself to improve your kiting and chasing abilities, but definitely use on your opponent instead if you need to quickly disrupt a combo or channeling ability. During teamfights, this ability is best used on your initiator to improve the success of the initiation, or on an opponent that tries to jump into your team's back lines in an attempt to kill your team's AD Carry.

Notes:
- The slow decrease is a flat 60 ms lower than what they would be normally.
- Movement speed and speed duration do not increase upon level. Maxing this last is wisest choice.
- Critter your opponents turn into depends on Lulu skin.
--Classic: Squill, a two-tailed animal.
--Bittersweet: Cupcake
--Wicked: Black cat.
--Dragontamer: Puff the magic dragon
--Swain turned into a critter during his ult is pretty funny to watch.

E: Help, Pix!If cast on an ally, commands Pix to jump to an ally and shield them. He then follows them and aids their attacks. If cast on an enemy, commands Pix to jump to an enemy and damage them. He then follows them and grants you vision of that enemy.

Explanation:

Another great spell that acts as either a Shield or a vision-granting nuke. Balancing between using as a nuke and as a shield is a skill that will only come with practice. Use as a shield if you are running away or taking / about to take damage when no fight is occuring (Karthus ult, Teemo mushroom, etc.) Using as a nuke is preferred when dueling your opponents, and it also has the benefit of granting vision on them, allowing you to easily continue to kill them when they try to escape into bushes or make themselves invisible (Akali, Rengar, etc.). Also, while Pix is following your opponent, it is nigh impossible for anything to be get between Pix's bolts and your duel target. During teamfights, try to use this ability in such a way that separates Pix from yourself, to allow your Glitterlance slow to hit as many opponents as possible.
Notes:
- Help Pix! will pop spellshields, but Pix will continue to follow your opponent. Vision is not granted however.
- The vision you get pierces invisibility (Akali shroud, Kha'zix ult, etc.)
- If you shield an ally, Pix's bolts will go off your allies spell penetration, not your own.
- If Pix goes more than 2000 units away, he will return to Lulu.
- Casting this on an enemy will give them a debuff that states "Hey! Listen!".

R: Wild GrowthLulu enlarges an ally, knocking enemies away from them and granting them a large amount of bonus health. For the next few seconds, that ally gains an aura that slows nearby enemies.

Explanation:

This ult is freaking awesome. This ability makes yourself or an ally much larger, and grants them bonus HP and a slowing aura. Best used during lane phase at the end of a fight, once your opponent has fully commited to the duel and couldn't escape after your burst heal. Also can be used to stop channeling spells, and makes it extremely difficult for melee autoattacking champions to stick onto you thanks to the aura. In teamfights, this ability is best used on your initiator after they go in, for maximum disruption. However, it is also extremely useful to use on your team's AD Carry, in order to keep them alive as long as possible so they can dish out maximum damage while also having the additional slowing aura to allow them to more easily kite the bruisers that are trying to kill them.
Notes:
- Health restored is not affected by Grievous Wounds.
- The health you get is not lost at the end of the ult, unless you're above your normal max HP.
- A champion is limited as to how big they can get. Cho'gath with 6 stacks isn't going to get any bigger, unfortunately.
- Nidalee cat with this ult is hilarious.
- Hecarim LOVES you for this

Note: A lot of these facts were obtained from the leagueoflegends.wikia.com Lulu page. Plagiarism is bad kids!

Skill Order

Early levels: QWQE or QWEQ

Afterwards: R > Q > E > W

Explanation:

Early Levels: Q is gotten at level 1 due to being the most useful ability in jungle invades, anti-invades, and leashing. It is an AOE nuke that can potentially slow multiple opponents, and can also hit all the creeps your jungler is trying to kill. W is gotten at level 2 because junglers will typically gank around that level - a 35% movement speed boost is far superior to an 80hp shield.

From that point, you max Q due to it being your primary nuke for farming and harassing. E is picked up at level 4 for easier landings of Q and for a small nuke/shield.

Rest of the game:

Just like most ultimates, this should be leveled as soon as you're able - Level 6, 11, and 16. Easily your most important skill, both for yourself and for your teammates. Leveling this gives your ally 150 HP more health per rank - very very useful for teammates that don't get many health items such as your AD Carries.

This is your primary harass skill, and also conveniently adds slow duration upon each rank of the ability. Leveling this skill up increases the damage by 45 and the slow duration by .25sec, and its massive range (925) allows you to easily poke your opponents from a safe range.

Not as useful as a nuke compared to Glitterlance, but still a very useful skill. Leveling this ability second means you'll have more burst damage in your combo, and also allows you to more effectively save yourself and allies from death with the stronger shield. Each level of the skill adds an additional 50 damage to its nuking power, or 45 health to its shield component. Not leveled first due to its inferior harassing ability (650 range, higher cooldown) to Glitterlance.

An awesome skill, but doesn't give Top Lulu too many benefits upon ranking it up. Each level lowers the cooldown by 1.5 seconds, gives 10 more AP, and provides .25sec more polymorph duration. However, the speed increase and duration are not affected by ranking up this ability, and these are the two most important components of the ability for Top Lulu. Later in teamfights, the lowered cooldown and increased polymorph duration are very useful for protecting your AD Carry, but ranking up your Glitterlance and Help, Pix! abilities will provide more killing power in the early-mid game.

Item Builds

tions for starting items. The Flask and Health potion help Lulu to maintain her health and mana during the lane, allowing you to farm towards your first big item as quickly and safely as possible. The ward is gotten to give warning that your opposing jungle is incoming, which can easily save your life.

Why not any alternatives? No other start gives this much sustain to Lulu, something she severely lacks during the early parts of the game. She most likely won't be receiving blue buffs, and will be under constant threat of jungle ganks. By maintaining a high health and mana pool, she can be as safe as possible in her efforts to farm.

Core Items

Since patch 3.8, this becomes the most optimal core item to get in the beginning of the game. This item gives a great on-hit passive that adds 42 magical damage to your autoattacks, while simultaneously giving 42% attack speed and some magic resist. To top it all off, attacking enemies will now reduce their magic resist, making all of your magical damage deal even more damage. Note that with runes, masteries, and Sorcerer's Shoes, your magic penetration reaches over 50. Rush this item immediately if you're in a lane that you're winning or tied in. If losing, getting Merc Treads (against magical enemies) or Seeker's Armguard (for physical opponents) is better to get first before trying to get Wit's End.

OR OR OR

It's about time you picked up some Movement Speed, to allow more chasing and kiting power. Sorcerer's shoes and their +15 Magic Penetration are generally the most optimal boot upgrade to buy, since they synergize with Wit's End's MR shred so well. Berserker's greaves are a worthy offensive alternative, since their 20% more Attack Speed allow you to attack faster. Better to pick those up if you find yourself dueling your opponents more often than simply poking them, or if your opponent rushed a lot of magic resist early.

Ninja Tabi or Mercury's Treads are the boots to pick up if you're having a rough lane. Merc Treads will provide valuable magic resist against a tough magical enemy, and also have the benefit of giving Tenacity, which lets you shrug off Crowd Control effects more quickly. Ninja Tabi can be picked up along with an early Seeker's Armguard against a tough physical opponent to provide maximum physical protection. These boots also reduce your opponent's autoattack damage by 10%, making them particularly useful against enemies such as Tryndamere and Aatrox.

This item gives Lulu a bunch of Attack Speed, and also throws in a lot of Ability Power and Cooldown Reduction. To top it all off, in Patch 3.8 they gave this item Malady's old on-hit damage, allowing Lulu to deal even more magical damage on her autoattacks.

This item has a lot of the same benefits as Wit's End, but does have a few differences. For one, it doesn't give any Magic Resist, nor does it shred your opponent's MR. Also, the on-hit effect has an AP ratio, and tends to be weaker than Wit's End's magical damage during the earlier parts of the game when Lulu doesn't have as much AP. For these reasons, it is usually preferable to rush Wit's End over Nashor's Tooth as Lulu's initial core item. However, you'll still want to pick this item up right after, especially when the teamfights really start to be a frequent occurance. The CDR especially is very useful at improving Lulu's kiting and chasing powers, and also allows more polymorphs to be cast to protect your AD Carry.

Are you laning against a physical opponent that is giving you troubles? Pick up this item for some very cheap Armor and Ability Power, to allow you to survive against these opponents long enough to buy a real damage item (Wit's End!). This item gives an initial 30 armor and 20 AP, but also grants an additional .5 AP and armor after each CS, with 30 max stacks possible. Thus, you've got an item that has granted you 45 armor and 35 AP for a measly 1160g. However, you shouldn't pick this item up if you're doing fine in your lane - it delays your other core items too much and doesn't provide enough offensive power to make up for it. Once you've completed Nashor's Tooth though, you'll still want this item on your way to getting

With Lulu's new AP ratio on her passive in Season 4, Zhonya's Hourglass became a mandatory item. Building more AP on Lulu still greatly contributes to her auto-attacking playstyle, and this item provides a ton of it. On top of that, it's a great source for Armor, and the passive can be used in great defensive ways (Block Karthus ult, save yourself from a tough initiation, etc.).

Picking your boots modification
My preferred enchantment. It's just so fun :P. This enchant allows Lulu to instantly regain all her health and mana in the fountain, and also gives a massive speed boost upon touching the fountain, making it the most optimal enchant for defensive situations. It's also very useful at getting back to your team quickly if you need to buy something before a big teamfight.
Arguably the best enchantment for Lulu. This boot upgrade gives Lulu a good boost of movement speed upon hitting an enemy with her autoattacks or Help, Pix! ability, allowing for maximum kiting and chasing power.
If you aren't confident in your kiting skills and hate the fun that Homeguard brings, then these are your best bet. This enchant gives Lulu a flat +15 movement speed, which isn't as strong as the 12% bonus that Furor gives during a fight. However, still a useful enchant for traversing the map, and a good pickup if you tend to roam around a lot.

Choosing your Fifth and Sixth Items

With the onset of Season 4, Lulu gets an AP ratio to her Pix passive. Getting AP is now very beneficial to this playstyle, and a Deathcap is the quickest way to meet that need. It doesn't provide any direct defensive bonuses, but does indirectly through the AP it gives (more movement speed from Whimsy, more shield from Help Pix!, more health from Wild Growth, and more slow effectiveness from Glitterlance).

If you're doing great, pick this up. This item gives you a lot of HP, and some mediocre AD. Most importantly, it gives all your autoattacks a slowing effect, making it even easier to kite your opponents around. A very good item to pick up if you've had a successful mid game, and want to continue to optimize your dueling power.

A beautiful item since the beginning of Season 3, and another great option for an offensive item. Provides AD, AP, Attack Speed, and gives the additional benefit of making you even harder to kill once you get <50% HP. On top of that, bringing yourself above 50% HP while the passive buff is on you doesn't remove the buff, so you're safe to ult yourself. When deciding between offensive options for these two slots, you'll almost always want either this or the Deathcap.

Guardian Angel gives a good amount of Armor and Magic Resist. However, the most important aspect of this item is its passive - upon death, you will revive with some HP on a 5 minute cooldown. A very useful item to get if you're being focused in teamfights, but didn't get Seeker's Armguard earlier in the game.

One of Lulu's best choices if you want MR. This gives Lulu some good health and Magic Resist, and also near-maxes your CDR when combined with Nashor's Tooth. Generally superior over Banshee's Veil due to the CDR. Note that the passive does not help with your Ultimate's heal, nor does it help with your shield. This is also usually the only item in my final build that includes bonuses to Health and Magic Resist.

This will give Lulu a good amount of Health and Magic Resist. It also provides a single spell-shield passively on a 25 second cooldown (if you're out of combat). Great against single-spell initiators or people with annoying poke such as Nidalee or Malphite. However, it doesn't provide the CDR that Spirit Visage provides. Only choose over Spirit Visage if the spellshield is a necessity against your opponents.

Do you want some MR, but don't particularly need the shield that Banshee's provides? Are you getting blue buffs on the team, or did you pick up a Frozen Heart to max out your CDR instead of a Spirit Visage? Pick up an Abyssal Scepter then - it will give you the MR you want while also providing you with some AP. Also, it gives you an aura that reduces nearby opponent's magic resist by 20, which synergizes very well with your Wit's End and Sorc Shoes.

This item is your best friend if you're against a champion that has an extremely annoying debuff. This item provides Lulu with 60 AD and 45 MR, but also gives you the ability to remove all debuffs that have been used on you, with a 90 second cooldown. Very very useful active to have against champions such as Nasus or Malzahar, since it can totally get rid of Malzahar's Stun or Nasus' Wither. However, isn't really worth picking up if your opponents don't have many annoying debuffs they've been using on you.

Do you find yourself suddenly suddenly in need ofTenacity, but don't feel like you want the Magic Resist from Mercury's Treads? This is the item you're looking for then - it provides that Tenacity while also giving Lulu some Attack Speed, Movement Speed, CDR and AD. A very useful item to improve your kiting, but also very pricey. Only grab this as a last item if you aren't against any dangerous magical enemies and already got the armor you want, but also still want the tenacity.

This item provides Lulu with a bunch of Armor and Health, and also gives you a passive that will slow the Attack Speed of anyone who autoattacks you. Furthermore, it gives you an active that will slow the movement speeds and attack speeds of any enemies around you for a couple seconds. Very useful item if you're still in need of armor after a Zhonya's hourglass, and the active is very useful when opposing bruisers are attempting to kill you. However, grab Frozen Heart of Zhonyas before this item if you're looking for your first armor item - the invulnerability from Zhonyas and the CDR from Frozen Heart make them the superior choice.

Only if snowballingNote: These items should be rarely bought

This items provide Lulu with Movement Speed and Attack Speed, which is very useful with improving her kiting and chasing power.It also makes Lulu immune to unit collision. However, the lack of defensive stats in an item build that already doesn't have much defense can spell death for poor Lulu in a teamfight. Only grab one if you're getting fed, but want additional help in catching your opponents.

This item provides Lulu with yet another on-hit effect, only it provides a physical component instead of a magical one. It also provides Lulu with attack speed, AD, and lifesteal, and gives a nice passive tht allows you to slow a single enemy and heal based on a % of their max HP. A good offensive item to pick up if your opponents are stacking more MR than Armor and you're snowballing, but it is generally preferred to pick up some defensive items instead.

Items you really shouldn't consider

These items are better for champs that have AD ratios. Or abilities that deal physical damage. If you wanna play AD Lulu, go for it. But this isn't the guide for you. None of these items give you defensive power, and don't synergize well with Lulu's lack of crit and other AD items.

This item provides some nice stats, but also has a very wasteful passive that provides a slowing effect to its user's spells. Lulu already has a fantastic slow on her Glitterlance, and the passive effect doesn't slow for your Pix passive or on-hit effects. If you want a slow, grab Red Buff or Frozen Mallet instead.

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These items provide massive amounts of mana, and also provide either AP + Shield or AD + on-hit effect. You don't have the mana-intensive item build to really make these items shine, since the shield and on-hit effect are based on your current mana when using them. Wit's End, and Nashor's give Lulu a total of 0 mana, making these items inefficient compared to using them with other item builds.

Gives Attack Speed, and also splits your ranged autoattacks to hit multiple people. These split autos will also apply any on-hit effects you may have. However, it doesn't shoot Pix bolts at split targets, which is Lulu's most powerful on-hit ability. Thus, there are better offensive items you can get that help you out in more ways.

/ /
These items all provide different stats, but a major part of these items is the on-hit effects you get after using an ability. Unfortunately, Lulu isn't really spammy enough with her spells to utilize these on-hit effects to their maximum effectiveness. Frozen Fist slow can instead be obtained by a Frozen Mallet.

A nice hybrid item that provides AD, AP, Lifesteal, Spell Vamp, and a nice slowing active. However, it doesn't provide any Attack Speed, which is Lulu's most important offensive stat. The slowing effect is better found through Lulu's Glitterlance and a Red Buff / Frozen Mallet, and the lifesteal is pretty pitiful with Lulu's low AD. Also, the Spell Vamp doesn't heal for Pix's passive or your on-hit effects. Altogether, not worth the high price tag.

Sample End-game builds:

Balanced:

Against heavy physical:

Against heavy magical:

Snowballing off fantastic early/mid game:

Early Game

The make or break part of Lulu's game.

Primary task: GET WIT'S END

How do you do this?

Last Hit

Last hitting is pretty easy with Lulu. Her attack animation is pretty quick, and her missle speed is fast. Should you happen to just miss a last hit, Pix bolts can sometimes pick it up instead. If you're harassing the enemy with Glitterlance, try to do it at times that will also pick up creep kills at the same time.

Survive Jungle Ganks

Make sure you have wards out at all times. If the jungle is coming in, Whimsy yourself and start running. Throw a Glitterlance behind you to greatly slow their advance, and Help, Pix! yourself if they've somehow managed to catch you. Once you have Wild Growth, you're nigh unkillable if you've got the mana.

Harass Enemy

When there aren't any creeps low, do what you can to harass your opponent down. Throw out autoattacks, and hit them with a Glitterlance when they go in for last hits. If they get below half HP, you can dash towards them with Whimsy, hit them with a Help, Pix! + Glitterlance combo, and proceed to Ignite and autoattack for a kill. Should this not be possible, sit tight and wait for your friendly neighborhood jungler to come gank for you.

Once you get Wit's End, your damage gets a massive boost
Use this to your advantage. Come back to lane, and 100%->0% your opponent. They won't know what the F*** just happened. Use your opponent's lack of experience against Lulu to your advantage!

Once you've gotten Wit's end is when I've determined your Mid Game starts

Mid Game

Hopefully your early levels weren't too bad. They are the hardest part of Lulu's game.

Anyways, you've gotten Wit's End! The hardest part of the game is over. What's next?

Continue to complete early-game goals
Continue to ward and survive ganks, harass and kill your enemy, and farm minions. You're still in need of money, and this is the best way of doing that.

Push down your tower
With your damage, it's time to also help out other lanes if you can. Actively try to kill your opposing tower as quickly as possible so you can roam the map and help your mid lane. By killing your tower, you are more free to help out elsewhere in the map, which can help your teammates get advantages over their opponents.

Help your team get objectives
Help push down their towers, and pick up dragon. Your ultimate is quite strong in teamfights, so coordinate with your initiators to result in some great fights for your team. These objectives will givey your team global gold, and winning teamfights can result in more gold for your team and easy objects to be taken.

Get kills
See someone pushed a little too far from a tower? Punish them. Whimsy yourself and hit them with a Help, Pix! + Glitterlance combo and proceed to autoattack them to their doom. By doing this, you're disallowing that opponent an attempt to push a tower and grant their team global gold, and the act of killing an opponent gives your team an advantage if any teamfights were to occur soon afterwards, since they're down a man.

Split push
No easy objectives available? Grab some wards, and push a lane. With Flash, Wild Growth, and Whimsy you really cannot be caught. Split pushing forces your opponents to make quick decisions - Stop your other 4 teammates from taking an objective, stop you from pushing the tower, or split their forces and try to stop both. Lulu is fantastic at running away, and her fantastic dueling power means that your opponents will probably have to send 2+ people to try and stop you. By doing this, your 4 allies now outman your opponents in these smaller teamfights, and can take objectives while you kite and annoy the people that got sent to stop you.

Late Game

Continue taking objectives
Push more towers, kill more dragons, force more teamfights. By this point, you shouldn't really be roaming around by yourself. A single death can result in a 60+ second death timer, and gives your opponents a significant advantage. Doing these objectives will continue to grant your team income, and taking towers makes it easier later to push for inhibitors.

Baron Fight
Force a fight at Baron with your team. Remember, Lulu's utility is amazing in these teamfights. Help your initiator jump on your opponents, or save your AD Carry when he's in danger. Dish out your damage, and don't forget to kite when necessary. By starting Baron with your team, you force your opponents to make one of three decisions - stop you with a teamfight, attempt a risky steal, or let you have it. If they let you have it, you've obtained a great buff for your team that gives a great advantage in teamfights. If they attempt to steal, bring Vision Wards and try to deter any attempts of stealing by killing their wards / killing their jungler if he comes to close. That leaves a forced teamfight - something that Lulu excels in. If you win that teamfight, you have given your team a huge window for a big push - your opponents by this time will have very long death timers, allowing you to probably push for an inhibitor.

Defend your base
If your team hasn't done so well, it's time to start turtling. Keep as a group of 5, but don't roam too far from your base and your towers. Don't engage your opponents while you have this disadvantage and they're all grouped, but instead hope that they make a mistake in their engagement on your base. If they do, hopefully your team can capitalize on their mistake and counter-push into their base for an inhibitor / victory.

Push to Win
Push with your team in a lane and force a teamfight at your opponents base. Winning this fight will give your team enough time to push through their base and kill the nexus. Congratulations!

Team Fights

Before teamfight - Decide whether or not you should be helping with the initiation, or help with protecting yourself / your AD Carry. Help with initiation if your opponents don't have too many good ways of getting to your back lines with you and your AD Carry. Ult yourself or the AD Carry if your opponents are good at jumping and bursting you guys down. This is to allow yourself or your AD Carry to survive as long as possible while dealing out tons of damage

If you know you're helping with initiation, ult your initiator after they go in.

Throw a Glitterlance to hit as many enemies as possible.

Start autoattacking the nearest safe target. Don't try to plow through their tank-line and attack their back lines - you'll probably get blown up immediately. Instead, stick with your AD Carry and help them focus down their target.

Save polymorph for when someone dangerous jumps on you or your AD Carry. CC them with it, and focus them down. If you didn't use your ult during initiation, use that as well once the polymorph wears off.

Use your Help, Pix! immediately on your focus target, to provide additional damage and ensure that all of Pix's bolts will hit that target instead of being blocked along the way. However, save the ability if the shield component is necessary / will soon be necessary, since saving someone's life can sometimes be more helpful than killing an opponent.

If the teamfight has gone in your favor, use your Whimsy to speed yourself or an ally up to help catch stragglers. Shield an ally ahead of you so you can Glitterlance farther away, to slow an enemy that might be out of your normal range.

If the teamfight went poorly, Whimsy and ally / yourself and start running. Use your shield to prevent incoming damage, and try to stay alive / save lives to mount a defense if your opponents try to push afterwards.

Tips and Tricks

GET WARDS. Knowing where your opponents are is half the battle. Avoiding jungle ganks is a major part of winning the early game. Staying alive means you're still available to push / defend against pushes, and you also have more time to earn yourself some money. You also deny your opponents gold by not dying, and knowledge of where the opposing jungle means that other lanes can be safe from his ganks temporarily.

Don't just ult / shield yourself. Just as Kayle shouldn't exclusively ult herself, Lulu should always be looking for opportunities to ult/shield your initiator or AD Carry to maximize your chances at winning teamfights. See the Teamfight section for more information on this.

Know when to polymorph and when to speed buff. For the most part, the speed buff will be the superior judgement call. This lasts 5 seconds, and allows you to easily chase and kite your opponents in combination with Glitterlance. However, if you're against someone fairly fed / has channeled abilities / has a Flash-ability ready, then Polymorphing is the superior option, since it effectively makes them useless for the duration that they're a critter. This is also the superior option if you're dueling an enemy you cannot easily kite, such as Master Yi.

HIT GLITTERLANCE SKILLSHOTS! Glitterlance is skinnier than most skillshots in the game. Practice practice practice. The range on this ability is quite high (925), but its missle speed is slower than a lot of abilities in the game. Aiming this skillshot correctly is the key factor in whether or not you win or lose the laning phase of the game. One way to harass opponents with Glitterlance is to figure out when they're going to last hit a creep, and aim Glitterlance at the location they'll have to be to kill the creep.

Kite, kite, kite. Learn to attack people while simultaneously running away from them. This is most easily done with Red buff / Frozen Mallet, but can still be effectively done with just Glitterlance. Lulu cannot straight 1v1 most top champions. You gotta kite them around, hitting them a lot more than they hit you. Best way to kite is to speed yourself up with Whimsy, and then hit your opponent with Help, Pix! and a Glitterlance. From there, bombard them with autoattacks while continuously backing away. If they're faster than you, just run away while you wait for Glitterlance to get off of its cooldown, then slow your opponent and hit them with a few attacks while they're movement speed has been reduced.

Warding

Blue circles are for blue side.

Purple circles are for purple side.

Top Lane Matchups

If I'm missing a champion you happen to be going top against, I apologize. If you consider them to be a common top, send me a PM and I'll add them to the list.

Until then, use your Lulu knowledge to the best of your ability, and play passively until you're sure the fights will go as you suspect.

These Descriptions of matchups assume you know what these champions can do. If you don't know this, check out one of their guides here at Solomid for a better understanding of the champion

Difficulty: 7/10
Ridiculous amounts of sustain make him extremely hard to bully out of lane by yourself early in the game. Lucky for you, his ranged harass is usually not maxed, and is also easy to predict and dodge. If he jumps on you, peel him off with your slow and kite like any other melee bruiser once that jump is down. Don't forget that he gains range with his ult - much harder to kite, and in general will be easier to simply avoid him until the ult range goes away. If you die early to a jungle gank he will start snowballing, so play a lot more passive at that point. Until you get Wit's End, it's generally better not to waste too much mana harassing him with spells unless a jungle gank is coming. Also, do NOT tower dive this guy alone... +200% sustain from his lifesteal is just too much to safely handle with a tower on you.

Difficulty: 2/10
Some sustain, but no CC or tankiness. Doesn't get gap closer till 6. Her invisibility is rendered totally useless if you Help, Pix! her first. Constantly poke her, and don't let her do assassin-y things at 6. Note that her burst damage can be quite high, so don't try to go in for the kill if she has more health than you. Instead, make sure to poke her with Glitterlance and autoattacks whenever she tries to harass you, and then you can easily go for the kill if she gets too low or she jumps on you - ult yourself and burst her down.

4/10
Good sustain if you let him CS, and he is beefier than the average champ. His only real tool he can use to harass you is his Scream though, so you don't have to worry about taking damage too much. Dodge his Q's (easy with Whimsy!), watch for his flash->Feast and you're golden. You probably won't be able to kill him pre-Wit's End without a jungle gank, so don't feel too bad if you end early game with no kills.

5/10
No sustain, no tankiness. Constantly poke him and stay out of Spin range. He becomes harder if you can't dodge his pull and get combo'd too much. If you get pulled, Whimsy and Glitterlance him and get out of his Spin range immediately. Save Wild Growth till he's about to ult so you can destroy his cooldown. You can win this lane if you don't try to all-in him at equal health; harass him way down before going all-in.

6/10
Mediocre sustain, not really tanky. Has some CC and a reliable gap closer though, so if she's got an HP advantage don't be playing too aggressively. Her early damage (levels 1-4) are pretty pathetic, but it starts to skyrocket once she gets more ranks of her %-damage skills. If you can't shut her down early, don't expect to win straight 1v1's with similar HP. The fact that she is range makes her inherently harder to harass, but make sure you don't take too much counter-harass in return!

5/10
Decent sustain, has good gap closers, and can keep up somewhat with your kiting. Also blocks an autoattack. Play this lane somewhat carefully, and harass with Glitterlance more than your Autos to prevent Riposte damage. Save Whimsy for when she dashes on you so you have time to slow her and back off. If you can, save Wild Growth for when she isn't ulting, so you don't waste the knockup portion of it.

Note: Even if she Riposte's your Autoattack, Pix's bolts can still hurt her.

4/10
Has sustain, has a gun. Any time he pokes you with it, Glitterlance and auto him back for 2-3x the damage he dealt to you. Don't let him get in range to auto you; you have a ton of slow and mobility. With his lack of gap closer, you should never let him land a melee attack on you.

1/10
Poor Garen, he has absolutely nothing he can do against you. Zone him out, and just kite all day. Don't let him get in range to spin, and you'll be fine. If likes standing in bushes too much, ward it and he's back to being able to do nothing. If he's aggressive with his speed-up, save your Glitterlance harass until after he uses it to totally nullify it (If you use it beforehand, his Q will remove the slow)

9/10
Decent sustain, good gap closer, CC, tanky. If she gets even a little bit ahead of you, you have no real chance of coming back. If she dashes you, Whimsy and Glitterlance her, and try your best to hit her every time she goes to CS. Do NOT let her hit you multiple times with her true damage; you're just asking to lose. Ask your jungler to gank, and otherwise just stay alive.

7/10
Recent nerfs to him have made him more manageable. He isn't too bad before 6, but still can cause some trouble with his lance of doom. He's also one of the only top champs that has a stun directly attached to his gap-closer. The major problems arise once he gets his ult; he can 100% stop your ability to kite with it - you'll want some armor quite early in order to deal with this. If you're able to dodge his flag + spear combo (quite skinny these days), you should be able to beat him.

7/10
He can deal a ton of harass with his Empower+Leap combo, and can commit to a longer fight if he decides to throw a stun in as well. Very hard to harass safely, and his low mana costs means that he'll be able to spam spells just as often as you can. Get a jungle gank early to help put you ahead if able. If he starts charging up his stun, back up and try to get out of range. If you can't, Polymorph him instead.

If you can't get a gank, avoid confrontation until 6 - focus your mana more on shielding off his harass. With your ult, you can more easily survive his all in, but you'll still be losing trades until you get Wit's End. Once you get it, you'll be able to win an all-out fight (unless he got a decent advantage in lane).

6/10
Hard to harass with autos, but if you can land your Glitterlances you're golden. Practice dodging his empowered skillshot and he has no answer to your harass. If he jumps on you, Whimsy him and barrage him with Glitterlance and autos.

6/10
Decent sustain, tons of damage. Her mana costs are as low as yours, and can poke you back as hard as you poke her. Her autos will deal similar damage, and she has similar range. She has a heal and you don't (pre-6). You have no real advantage in this lane, unless she can't dodge max-range Glitterlances. Call for jungle ganks; the only sure way you'll win trades is if you're ahead or have your Wit's End.

5/10
Battle of the skillshots. Your Glitterlance vs his shuriken. His will hurt you more (He can surge you if shuriken lands), but you have autos and Help, Pix! to put you ahead. Stay behind creeps when you harass as best as you can, and you're on your way to an easy lane.

3/10
Pre-6, this guy is laughable. If he leaps on you, he's wasted his only way to escape. If he doesn't he'll never get in range to land a Slash. His skillshot is his only safe means of harass, and it can be blocked by creeps. Beat him in the harass war by staying behind creeps and Glitterlancing / Autoattacking him every time he goes to last-hit. Smash him early, but always be near creeps in case he gets bold and tries to leap + Slash you for a good chunk of damage.

Once he gets 6 and upgrades his skillshot, the lane becomes a little more difficult. Return him poke for poke, and keep chunking him down to deter him from ever wanting to all-in you. He can do a surprising amount of damage in his combo if you're alone, so make sure he's low enough before you all-in him for the kill.

8/10
Can be a very hard lane to beat. A good Lee can shrug off a lot of harass with his shield + sustain, and his combo puts out a lot of damage early. Harass as best you can and call for a gank - If he gets even a kill ahead, he can snowball the lane out of your control easily.

3/10
Pre-6, he'll never get close to you. His Q harass can be annoying, but you can match his harass easily.

Once he hits 6, he has respectable burst. Don't do any stupid tower-dives, and don't delay activating your Wild Growth if you feel an engage coming on; he can potentially kill you mid-knockup

2/10
His wither is annoying, but he'll never touch you. Don't let him safely farm and you're looking at one of your easiest lanes. Get a Mercurial Scimitar to deal with Wither during teamfights later.

3 - 7/10
AP: 7
If you she can land spears, you can't do squat. Her heals make your harass almost pointless, so just farm as best as you can and wait for jungle ganks. Don't give her an excuse to Cougar + Pounce on you, she'll deal a ton of damage.
AD: 3
Take everything dangerous about AP Nidalee... and get rid of it. Now you're dealing with a pathetic AD champ with no good harass and mediocre sustain. You'll still want to avoid getting Cougar combo'd on, but AD Nidalee is a lot safer to poke down to a killable point.

8/10
Ughh, Nunu. His sustain is massive, and his poke hurts. It's very very hard to outdamage his sustain; you'll go oom before he does. Ask for ganks, because they're the only way you're going to make a dent in him. Luckily, Top Nunu is still rare, and you have plenty of ways to stop his ult.

4/10
Don't let him get in range to deal True Damage and you'll be fine. Pre-6, this should never happen. Dodge Axes as best as you can, and poke him back hard. Once he gets his ult, be more cautious in your play but still continue to hit him. If he ults and starts running at you, Whimsy yourself and back off till the ult is gone.

3.5/10
He'll spear harass you a lot early. It can hurt. Hurt him back. Make sure that for every Glitterlance you land, you also land at least 2 Autoattacks. If you can outharass him early, you can kill him early and snowball the lane to victory. If you can't keep up with those spears though, the lane becomes a little harder. Back off before you get too low, and try to safely harass with Glitterlance. Only auto him if his spear is on cooldown.

Note: His passive can block your autoattack damage, but won't block Pix's 3 bolts. If he somehow gets his passive off between your attack and the bolts, the shield will block a single Pix bolt.

3/10
Her passive makes her deceptively tanky, but her gap closer + harass on you is too mana costly for her to do much. Poke her down, and don't let yourself get Charged into a wall. Don't tower dive her without Ignite; her passive can reduce all your damage by up to 50%.

5/10
No real answer to your harass. Don't let him casually get in range to Spin you; force him to use his Dashx2 if he wants to get in range. With his dash on cooldown, he's open to a ton of harass.

4/10
He has a nice snare and gap closer, and has some mediocre sustain. Keep those side bushes warded if he enjoys jumping on you, and poke when he goes to kill creeps. Be sure to Help, Pix! him if he ults so you can cancel out his invisibility.

6/10
She got some nice nerfs recently, but her damage is still quite high. Do not get in easy range of her and you should be fine. Get a seeker's armguard if you have early troubles. Once you get Wit's End and aren't behind in lane, you'll be able to kite+duel her a lot more effectively.

5/10
His spears and flames hurt. He has a shield. Still not too bad. Don't let him get in range of Flamethrower, and dodge / stay behind creeps to avoid Spear damage. If you aren't ahead of him by the time the ults come out, play a little more passively; his combo has a lot of potential

4/10
He has some decent damage output, but he's pretty squishy and doesn't have any sustain. Glitterlance has a longer range than any of his abilities, and you can autoattack him while you're snared. Don't underestimate him too much though; he can spam his spells more than you can. Watch your mana, and avoid confrontation when its getting low.

4/10
Poke him down every time he goes to CS, and don't let him harass you without taking more damage back. Dodge his taunts as best as you can; his autos + passive can hurt. You probably won't be able to kill him without jungle aid pre-Wit's End. If you see him ulting to an ally, Whimsy him immediately.

2/10
No ranged harass and no sustain. What can he do to you? Fling you? Whimsy yourself and get out of range. Goop you? Glitterlance slow still prevents him from getting in range. Just stay on your toes, because if he ever does actually fling you, you can take a good chunk of damage.

6/10
He can poke you back, and auto you back. If he lands his snare on you, his damage output exceeds yours. Avoid his snare and try to poke him down from long range so he doesn't get his ult hitting you, and you'll have a better shot of matching him. If your jungler can pull off a successful gank early, you can easily snowball over this guy. Note: His ult will still be going off if you Whimsy him.

3/10
You can outpoke him, and his all-in prevents him from being able to escape the wrath of Lulu. Get your Help, Pix! off on him before he ults so you can still see him. If you find yourself unable to kill him, get the jungler to gank so you can ensure the assassin has no chance of getting fed.

6/10
Ward bushes. Know where he puts his mushrooms. Don't walk on mushrooms.

His auto harass hurts, but you have more range. If he blinds you, don't waste your time hitting him with autoattacks. Match his harass as best as you can, and use your Glitterlance range to your advantage.

Note: His blind will prevent your autoattacks from hurting him, but Pix's 3 bolts will still hurt him.

4/10
His sustain is decent, and a crit or two on you can lead to a lost lane. If he spins towards you, slow him. He goes for creeps, poke him. Don't do a stupid tower dive if he still has his ult, and don't let him hit multiple autoattacks on you. If he kills you early, play extremely safe; a snowballing Tryndamere is a terror to your team. Get a seeker's armguard / ninja tabi if he gets an early kill, and try to prevent him from getting any more.

3/10
Don't engage him before you've gotten your Whimsy, his tiger stance damage is absurdly high in the beginning of the game. Poke him when he last hits, Glitterlance him when he goes Bear.

5/10
She has pretty crazy damage. Don't let her get a 3rd shot on you; kite her around before it can happen. Make sure to poke her down hard when she goes to CS, and you'll be alright. Her burst and chasing power at 6 is high, so don't find yourself suddenly at half hp before an engage with her.

3/10
Vladimir is a very weak champion early. Capitalize on this, and smash him down before he can get his Revolver and his massive sustain. His poke is pathetic early and he lacks tankiness; all-in him before level 5 and he has no answer to you.

If he ults you, just back off until the debuff goes away. Don't let him draw you into a fight you don't want to be in.

2/10
If he dashes towards you to Fling you, Glitterlance and kite . If he can't Fling you, he can't hurt you. Don't do a stupid tower-dive when his passive is still up. If you do find yourself in melee range of this guy, get him off you immediately; you will never win a trade with him if he gets to Bite you.

Note: His early damage his huge, and your kite at these levels (1-3) are low. Don't really get aggressive until you've gotten Whimsy and wards up.

3/10
Poor Wukong; his Decoy is rendered 100% useless with your Help, Pix!. With his ability to safely harass you gone, he's like a Fiora without sticking power. Poke and kill as you please.

Once he gets his ult, play a little more cautiously; his combo can hurt pretty bad. He'll also still be spinning if you Whimsy him during his ult. Don't all-in him unless you have an HP advantage even if you're ahead in lane.

8/10
This guy is a pain. High damage, decent sustain, with a good gap closer and CC. Try to kite him well enough when he dashes to prevent the third hit of his Q to prevent the knockup, and you can hold your own. Call your jungler over ASAP, you won't be able to stand up to this guy alone.

5/10
He has an annoying shield - don't harass with your Glitterlance without first breaking it with a quick autoattack. Without his shield, he is quite squishy; you should be able to trade well before he gets some sustain. Don't underestimate his burst with his ult, and you should be fine.

5/10
Tons of sustain, and his poke hurts. Your best chance at winning this lane is winning it early; spam your Glitterlance off every cooldown at him and try to kill him at Level 3. Your goal is to kill him before your mana gets depleted. If you can do this, use your money advantage to start pulling ahead, and keep spamming Glitterlance as often as possible.

If you cannot outpoke him, try to make it a farm lane. Don't try to half-ass poke, he'll just shrug it off. Save your mana, and just get the farm you can. He shouldn't ever kill you if you're smart about backing off and recalling.

3/10
Decent sustain, but he can't touch you without his jump - which leaves him extremely open to ganks. If you notice him using it to try to harass you, call for easy jungle ganks. If he doesn't, be prepared for an extremely easy lane ahead of you. You can outduel him, and he cannot outsustain your harass.

4/10
His dash has a high cooldown, but he can dish out some pain when he wants. Dodge his Shurikens and focus your harass on him when that shadow dash is on cooldown so he'll have no answer to you. If he ults you, back off. Wild Growth, Whimsy him, Glitterlance him; Survive his crazy burst and you'll win the fight. Kite as best as you can so you stay out of his Spin range.

Replays

Laning
(Featuring Phreak in the bottom lane! Top Lulu vs Ryze)

(Top Lulu vs Rumble)

Teamfighting

Final Comments

In champ select, your team will hate you. At the beginning of the game, your opponents will laugh at you. Junglers will gank you more with the idea that you're easy gold.

Plow through the hate. Plow through the cries of "TROLL OHMAHGAWD BBQSAUCE" and show your team that you + Lulu = BADASS. Show the world that just because you're as close to a fairy princess as LoL can get doesn't mean you can't kill people just as fast as anyone else.

And at the end of the game, your teammates will sit in awe of what they just witnessed. Your lane opponent will be stupefied as to What the HELL just happened? Your other opponents will be raging hard at said unlucky lane opponent, blaming their loss on the noob who "couldn't even beat a Lulu top."

Say GG, encourage everyone to broaden their minds a bit, and push "Play Again." Rinse and repeat until you cannot gain any more elo.

But remember, Lulu isn't a champion you can just pick up and instantly carry every game you touch just because your opponents don't know how to deal with you (*cough Darius*). She actually requires some skill. Skillshots. Kiting. Abilites that do multiple things. She will required PRACTICE before you can pwn teh n00blordz. Don't play 1-2 games and give her up.

Your efforts will not be in vain. You will then possess the skills to carry games with one of the most fun champions in the entire game.

Thanks for reading. I hope you all get the chance in your life to have a kickass carry game as Lulu

~PabloTheTwig

Changelog / Patch Notes

7/22/13: Lulu guide approved

8/17/13: Added more tips and tricks. Top Lulu nerfs are rumored...

09/07/13: Lulu's ult cooldown increased, but only for 3v3 and Dominion.

10/01/13: Updated some champ matchups. Added Aatrox and Zac.

10/03/13: Diamond achieved. Slightly new skill order, with reasonings

12/7/13: Starting long process of updating guide for patch 3.14 and Season 4.

2/3/14: Updates to some champ matchups (Riven nerfs yesssssss)

3/20/14: Lulu's 2nd birthday!!!!! And still no nerfs!!!

Credits

Riot for making this game I've spent way too much time playing

lolFreedom's AP Lulu guide for a clear statement on why DPS Lulu is viable at all

Gamefaqs.com forum members for having the stupid idea to play Top Lulu during Day 1 of her release

Doran's Ring is certainly a nice item. The major problem is that you have two possible goals in the early stages: Rush that Wit's End ASAP, or get a Seeker's because opponent has 300000 AD. Both of those items have components the same price as Doran's, and get you to your goal faster.

I've experimented with the item, and I do like it for the 1-2 minutes after I get it. The problem is that it delays your Wit's End, which means it delays a massive powerspike that you depend on getting a kill with

What do you think about buying an extra Doran's ring in lane phase if there's spare gold? It really helps with mana sustain, and Lulu seems to be mana hungry for me. Also, "item Order" section lost it's beginning.
Anyways, great guide. Lulu is one of those chars who can be played in any role (except maybe jungle, not that she can't, she's just not as good).

Last night I got my first penta ever thanks to your build Pablo! It was in hexa mode (I was top with lux supporting me) though but still, and a hexa kill was close too... It happened in the last 5 minutes of the game. A truly sweet guide. Thanks for sharing your guide and keep up the good work! :)

Flask is extremely cost effective, and the extra 360 health per recall is really nice early game on a champ who has no other sustain. Doran's Ring is certainly nice as well, but any lane with a lot of harass is going to give you more problems

I have tried this build, and really don't get on with the potion start. I start with dorans ring, and usually pick up another dorans ring early unless I get enough gold before backing to buy wits end outright. It works wonders, extra hp, extra ap and extra mana regen for spamming spells.